Posts Tagged ‘Fort Hood’

For the past week, Nidal Malik Hasan has been a central figure in the media yet many of the reports have chosen to engage in combative analysis between political ideologies rather than cultivate talking points that nurture us toward unity. To me, this is disturbing.

At a time when we should be unanimously joined as a country in mourning, we have news outlets asking questions like: Was this a criminal act or an act of terror? Is political correctness to blame for these deaths or did the overwhelming stress of a pending deployment cause Hasan to snap? Yes, I see value in these questions as an analysis to the situation but not as an immediate response to the event and definitely not as a central discussion each and every day thereafter.

Unfortunately, sensation sells and with news outlets hurting for dough, the tendency is to stoke controversy above all else. It’s no secret that our post-911-culture possess predictable hot buttons and that pressing them draws dollars. I admit it. The moment I saw Hasan’s name, my conservative hot button lit up expecting to be pushed. I thought: “Let me guess. The guy is a radical Muslim!” I’m also pretty confident that there were folks on the left who heard his name and thought “Let me guess! The guy will be labeled a radical Muslim!”

This is the political predictability that our press depends upon and successfully exploits in order to keep us glued to their coverage. However, a factual baseline that our journalists just don’t seem to get is this: even though these thoughts of Islamic radicalism pricked our minds, those thoughts did not dominate us.

For most of us, our prevalent concern upon hearing the news of Fort Hood was heartfelt regard for the victims and their families. We immediately lifted them up in prayer and ached in tandem as citizens who, together, suffered loss. This is the real relationship amongst the American people and we will continue to seek our solace and healing together.